


Nowhere Man

by NancyBrown



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Extra Treat, Gen, Rift (Torchwood), Year That Never Was
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-27 02:17:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12571524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NancyBrown/pseuds/NancyBrown
Summary: Sometimes the timelines the Rift touched weren't real, had never been real.





	Nowhere Man

**Author's Note:**

  * For [citrinesunset](https://archiveofourown.org/users/citrinesunset/gifts).



Toshiko documented everything she could about the Rift. The thing was, while Jack could spend hours explaining the nature of warped space-time from his own perspective as an immortal time-traveler who'd been parked on the lip of the Rift for over a century, he rarely did. All of eternity had been granted to someone who got so distracted when the delivery boy from the Thai restaurant wore tight jeans that he dropped and broke the controller for that piece of Yrensian tech Tosh had just got working.

She made her notes, and she muttered at her boss, and she wondered at the readings she got from the many instruments she'd inherited, scavenged, or personally developed to watch it. Because the Rift, well, the Rift wasn't just a path between dimensions, or a bullet train to other, horrible worlds.

Sometimes the timelines it touched weren't real, had never been real.

For example, just a few weeks ago, they'd come into possession of some identification washed up in the last Rift-storm. The surname Jones was common as muck, but the picture ID looked far too much like Ianto to make him comfortable, and even more like his sister, or so he said. But the worst part was the name, which matched the name of the little baby his mum had had between the two of them. "But he died," Ianto said. "Stillbirth." Of the man in question, there was no sign. Just his wallet holding his driving licence, a condom still in the wrapper, and twenty quid in notes that weren't the right colour.

That was the Rift for you, Jack had joked, trying to ease the worry on Ianto's face.

Tosh tried not to think about the places the Rift saw, tried not to wonder what it brought to them until the current horror was causing trouble down Queen Street. When the floating ball came through, giggling and murdering, she ignored the creepy sensation of déjà vu she got looking at it, and let the others distract it until she got the electrical net set up to trap the thing.

When they got a close enough look at it, Jack went pale as death. Tosh went to touch his arm. She'd seen him like this before, they all had, and they took turns keeping their fearless leader on the sunny side of sane. "Jack, you okay?"

He didn't reply. Instead, he pulled out a pocket knife and popped open the hatch. A face, looking almost human, peered out at them. Gwen gasped, and Ianto took two steps back. Tosh leaned in closer, her sense of the familiar growing stronger.

Jack shot the face without a word. "We're done here."

"What was that thing?" Owen asked. Tosh was already looking on how to extract it from the shell. She could examine the ball, and Owen could have fun seeing what the organic bits were made of.

"A nightmare from a time that never happened. Leave it." Jack took a breath, and then, it was the strangest thing. He looked at each of them in turn, as if reassuring himself they were there. His mouth twitched. "Incinerate it as soon as we get back. But first," he said, looking at the mess all along the street, "we have a gas leak to fake. Let's get to work."


End file.
